You really need to consider your preferences before booking into Copenhagen's new Hotel Fox. Its highly decorated rooms can cater to a variety of moods, but since they range from lazy to sexy to outdoor camping, it wouldn't do to choose badly.

If, for example, you are travelling with your little sister, then room 309, a Gothic honeymoon suite with black lace curtains, black satin play area and foxy ladies outlined in red on the dark walls, might not seem quite right. And if you're not into boxing, then room 504 complete with heavily taped-up punch bag and a cabinet of old trophies is unlikely to sweeten your dreams.

The origins of Hotel Fox lie in a massive marketing event laid on by Volkswagen earlier this year to promote its latest small car, the Fox, which, when it comes on the British market this summer, should retail at around £6,500.

No car launch is complete without stupidly lavish amounts of publicity and hospitality, but in this case German company Event Lab thought outside the box, and at least came up with an idea for something that would be less wasteful than your average automotive jamboree.

Event Lab proposed taking over an existing three-star hotel and customising it to host a string of launches and accommodate hundreds of journalists over a month, and then leaving it as an up-and-running concern (back in the hands of the original owners).

The result is the 61-room Fox, decorated throughout by 21 young artists, illustrators, graphic designers and graffiti artists from places as far apart as Brazil and Neasden. Rooms were stripped out, preparations made, and then the chosen 21 were given just a couple of days to decorate several rooms each.

There's room 214, a living Disney cartoon meets Jeff Koon kitsch, with green carpets and red curtains, shelves loaded with cute little ornaments and a bed smothered with repulsively cute soft toys. Another, by Australian designer Rinzen, has a tent erected on its brown carpet and koalas and platypuses drawn on the walls. Others offer everything from manga to hardcore graffiti to early 20th-century padded furniture purchased off eBay.

"They could choose any kind of carpet or flooring, and what to do with the walls, and the curtains," says Rene Thomsen, who took over as hotel manager at the beginning of May. "The only rules were that the bathrooms [complete with brightly coloured rubber Agape shower heads] were standard, and all the beds are the same. And that there could be no pornography."

While the car is aimed at the 18 to 30 age group, the hotel is, according to Thomsen, "about lifestyle not age". It's not especially luxurious, but there's a constantly updated supply of English language newspapers and magazines in reception, and a generally relaxed atmosphere.

Rooms start at €120, which is cheap for Europe's second most expensive city. And there's a perverse attraction in a hotel that breaks all the rules of functional beauty that are central to Danish design.

Copenhagen is a great summer weekend destination, and this location - opposite the lovely Orstedsparken (which, be advised, turns into a lively gay cruising ground after dark), on the edge of the picturesque Latin Quarter and on the way to the totally hip Norrebro area - is pretty well perfect.

Follow designs

Hotel Fox might break all the Danish design rules, but you wouldn't want to visit the city without taking in the real thing. Here's how to find functionalism, and more besides, without really trying.

By getting around: The Metro. It's Copenhagen's pride and joy. The first stages of the modern, functional metro by KHRAS opened a couple of years ago, and the rest is still under construction. It's reminiscent of the new parts of London's Jubilee Line, but this being Denmark, it's spotless.

By cool-hunting: Comme des Garcons Guerilla Store (Islands Brygge 7, 00 45 3295 6530) and Tobi Café Leifsgade 3, +8838 8083). Cross the Oresund to Islands Brygge and sunbathe by the water with the cream of Copenhagen. Prove your fashion credentials by visiting the temporary Comme in an old ice-cream parlour - one of eight so-called Guerilla stores that popped up around the world this spring and will disappear again come autumn.

By going to the beach: Bus 6, or the S train to Klampen borg will take you to Bellevue (pictured left), a white sand beach that's fringed with apartments by Danish design hero Arne Jacobsen. He built the Bellavista housing in 1934 and the Bellevue theatre in 1937. Both, still in great shape, are exquisite examples of gleaming white modernism.

By having a snack: Dansk Design Center (HC Andersens Boulevard 27, +3369 3369). Those assuming that a Danish variant of the Design Museum will offer a monumental design experience might be disappointed (it feels a bit small-time), but the cafe - decked out in chunky pine and cheeky references to traditional peasant style - is a triumph and serves great food.

By having a drink: Stereo Bar (Linnesgade 16 A, +3313 6113). Verner Panton decor, Poul Heningsen lights, but all hidden behind a thick veil of smoke. The Stereo Bar is classic Danish understatement -a fantastic array of 60s retro design played down as much as it possibly can be. Desperately cool, and all without trying. By taking in a club

Kat Club (Ny Ostergade 14, +3313 8135). Helle Mardahl, a former Central St Martins student, is charged with changing the decoration at the Kat club on a regular basis. Draws the funkiest crowd and DJs in the city.

By spending the night: Radisson SAS Royal Hotel (Hammerichsgade 1, +3342 6000). Central Copenhagen's only tower was designed between 1956 and 1960 by Arne Jacobsen as the Royal Hotel. Sadly now only room 606 has been left intact.

About this article

Putting the funk into functionalism

This article appeared on p10 of the Travel section of the Guardian
on Friday 13 May 2005.
It was published on
the Guardian website
at 14.18 EDT on Saturday 14 May 2005.
It was last modified at 14.18 EDT on Monday 2 October 2006.
It was first published at 19.00 EST on Tuesday 21 November 2006.